Readers offer voting views

Mar. 11, 2013

Voting series continues Tuesday

The Journalís opinion series on voting-related issues includes editorials, guest columns from experts, views of readers, and videos and more online. The series continues Tuesday with a column by state Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk, D-Duanesburg, who won in a highly contested race in November and is writing about voting reforms. New York consistently ranks among the worst states when it comes to enacting voting reforms and generating good turnout at the polls. Good-government groups and others are pushing for changes, including early voting and campaign finance reform. What do you think? How would you improve the stateís elections system? Share your thoughts with us via a letter to the editor. And to see earlier parts of the series ó including videos and other content exclusively online ó go to www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/opinion.

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Schedule all votes on Election Day

Voting in New York can be improved by having all votes on Election Day in every polling place. This would include all taxing units, village, town, fire and county officials.

Votes where we have a direct say on the budgets, schools and libraries should be held together on a different day earlier in the year and in all the same polling places.

This will make it easier to mark your calendar and find your polling place.

Karl Loatman

LaGrange

Change the way races are funded

You have proposed several ways to improve New York stateís voting system, but did not mention the one that I believe would make the greatest difference, and that involves changing the way political campaigns are funded. In his first State of the State address, Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised to push for public funding of campaigns, but we have heard little about this since. However, it is the only way to change the politics of both the state and the country.

People may wonder why there is such a disconnect between what Americans want their government to do and what government actually does. The reason is simple: Politicians do not see themselves as accountable to the people who voted for them, but only to the corporations and powerful interests that funded their campaigns. If we had public financing of campaigns, paid for solely by taxes, those interests would lose their hold on politiciansí votes. Of course, this would only work if campaigns were conducted not through 30-second commercials and robocalls, but by forcing the media channels that use our airwaves to make time for candidates to inform the public about their views in a reasoned, informative manner. Some may think we canít afford to spend taxpayer dollars in this way, but I believe that in the end, it would decrease the cost of government, because legislators would pass laws that reflect the will and the interests of the people, and giveaways to corporate interests (agribusiness, oil, etc.) would end.

Pat Lamanna

Poughkeepsie

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Editorís note: Pat Lamanna is correct that in our promotional material for this series, we did not mention campaign finance reform, but it will be addressed as part of coverage later this week.

Have voters provide ID to prevent fraud

In New York, to vote, all you have to do is register and sign your name before voting. If one were to have registration records, it would be fairly easy to copy someoneís signature and vote in that personís place. Since voter turnout has not been much over 60 percent in presidential elections, for example, since 1972, finding people who wonít vote should be fairly easy. The combination of voter drives, low voter turnout and signature only verification, cheating on an election should be fairly easy, and almost impossible to detect. To fix this, all you need to do is have voters provide picture ID, like a driverís license at the polling station.

Republicans have proposed this change in several states, but the change has been rejected by Democrats. Democrats say that requiring ID to vote is discriminatory. If this is true, cashing a check, driving a car or getting welfare benefits are also discriminatory, because all require picture ID. I think the Democrats have ulterior motives.

Since it isnít really discriminatory to require ID, the only other logical reason to oppose it is to be able to cheat on elections where a close vote is expected. Since elections in Dutchess County have been close, I think ID should be required to vote in New York.

Alan Bradford

Salt Point

The popular vote should matter

An article in the Poughkeepsie Journal stated that New York state is one of several states where the electors are not bound to cast their votes for the candidate who wins the stateís popular vote on Election Day, ďObama officially wins state,Ē (Dec. 18). This means that the popular vote for the president of the United States is unimportant. Even if the candidate wins the majority of popular votes, the electors actually choose the next president. So why vote?

(Page 3 of 3)

I find this to be mind-boggling. I wrote to Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, and several newspapers protesting this undemocratic practice and urging that an amendment be passed to abolish it. No response from anyone. The Poughkeepsie Journal was the only one that printed my letter. Thank you. The fact that no one else responded to your article or my letter also baffles me. Doesnít anyone else care? Twenty-nine electors from New York state (who elects these electors?) decide for the millions of New York state voters who gets New York state.

I find this very disturbing and frustrating and un-American. Doesnít anyone else care? All in all, 270 electors out of 538 elect the president.

Fred Niessen

Pleasant Valley

Redistricting leaves the public out

More than a month ago, the Dutchess County Legislature unveiled its map and it kept the status quo that no two incumbents were in the same district. Unfortunately, few members of the public were in attendance, and there was very little interest at the public hearings last summer. I personally was unaware of this taking place until recently.

While it appears the process was open, it still would have been better to leave the decision-making to the independent public commission that was created by the Democratic majority ó but then repealed by the GOP. While it appears there was a steering commission created to assist in the redistricting process, to my surprise, this steering commission met a couple of times in 2011, and no more than a few times in 2012. After they met in June 2012, they did not meet for the rest of the year until this January while the GOP drew the lines. The GOP-appointed commission did not meet the last six months the lines were being finalized. It did not look good then and it still does not sit well with me today.

Sadly, the redistricting puts me in another district. It was really a pleasure having Dutchess County Legislator Francena Amparo as my representative. She is a hard worker and is always making herself available to me and other constituents. I hope that level of service remains the same with my new representative.